Chinese VR-Zone apparently managed to get their hands on HD 7770 and put it through 3DMark 11 where this card scores P3535 marks. This makes the HD 7770 a decent performer fitting it somewhere between HD 6850 and HD 6870, which is pretty much what we have been hearing from various sources.

In case you missed it, the Radeon HD 7770 is based on AMD's 28nm Cape Verde GPU and features 640 GCN stream processors. It packs 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 128-bit and all under 85W of TDP. The HD 7700 series based on Cape Verde will be one of the first cards to have a reference 1GHz GPU clock while memory should be clocked at 1125MHz (4.5GHz effective).

We have already heard that, performance wise, HD 7770 should end up pretty close to the HD 6870 at only a fraction of the power consumption. Don't get us wrong as Radeon HD 6870 will still be faster, but it will also still be a bit more expensive than the HD 7770. The HD 7770 will definitely be a better choice over the HD 6850 as it should have a much better performance/Watt ratio.

Currently, the price of the HD 6850 is pretty close to the rumoured launch price of the HD 7770 and it is still not clear what will AMD, and its partners, do to keep the sales of the HD 6850 going, since there is a decent amount of HD 6850 still available on the market. We might be looking at a price drop or even rebranding of some sort, but that is something that we still can't confirm.

In any case, HD 7700 series looks like a pretty good deal and all we need now is to see the entire set of benchmarks.

Sapphire has updated it graphics card lineup with yet another card, the HD 6870 Dirt3 Special Edition. As the name suggests, the new card comes with a voucher code for Dirt3 download, features a dual fan cooler and has a factory overclock.

As far as the spec go, the new Radeon HD 6870 Drit3 Edition card features 1120 stream processors and 56 texture processing units. It comes with a slight factory overclock to 920MHz for the GPU and 4200MHz for its 1GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit memory interface.

The card features a dual-slot dual fan cooler, two DVIs, two HDMIs and two mini DisplayPort outputs. Unfortunately, there was no announcement regarding the price or the actual relase date but we are sure that this one will show up in retail/e-tail pretty soon. The price should be somewhere around €160.

Previously seen and introduced at Computex in Taipei, the Powercolor Radeon HD 6870 X2 graphics card has now been officially announced. Packing two 40nm Barts XT GPUs sharing the same PCB, the new HD 6870 X2 comes with a custom dual slot cooler, 2GB of GDDR5 memory and a total of 2240 Stream Processors.

As noted, the new card packs a total of 2240 Stream Processors, or 1120 per GPU and works at 900MHz for each GPU and 4200MHz for a total of 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a dual 256-bit memory interface. Since we are talking about a custom card, Powercolor used a "Platinum Power Kit" on the PCB that includes 13-phase VRM, ferrite Core Chokes and DrMos.

The cooler that will keep the temps of both GPUs uses two slots and features six heatpipes with Heatpipe Direct Touch technology as well as two fans to keep the card as cool as possible. The card needs two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors and features two DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4 and two DVI outputs.

The latest info was that it should be priced at around US $449 and should end up about 15 percent faster than the GTX 580.

In addition to the HD 6970 X2 card that is yet to get a release date, Powercolor decided to showcase yet another dual-GPU card that should be available as of next month - the Radeon HD 6870 X2.

The HD 6870 X2, as Powercolor calls it, packs two 40nm Barts GPUs connected via Lucid's Hydra Engine chip and a total of 2GB of GDDR5 memory on the same PCB. It will have a total of 2240 Stream processors, GPUs clocked at 900MHz and dual 256-bit memory interface for those 2GB of 4200MHz clocked memory. The backplate features two DVI, two mini DisplayPort and an HDMI 1.4a outputs.

The new dual-GPU card will need two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors and will be a decent option for those that want to go for HD 6870 Crossfire without the need for additional PCI-Express slot. It also features a Crossfire connector in case you want to daisy chain two of these cards for some quad-GPU fun.

The card is cooled by a rather large dual fan cooler with a total of five copper heatpipes. According to latest details, the card should appear on retail/e-tail shelves sometimes next month with a price of US $449. This means that it will end up more expensive than two HD 6870 cards that are currently selling as low as US $190 a piece, but that's what you get when you pair two GPUs on a single PCB as you got to count for custom cooler and cost of bridge chip.

Powercolor is preparing a rather interesting card that will be officially unveiled at this year's Computex show in Taipei, a dual-GPU card based on two Barts GPUs.

Although the details regarding the card are still unknown as Powercolor is keeping all the juicy details for Computex, it appears that the card will be based on Barts XT GPUs. This means that it will feature a total of 2240 stream processors, or 1120 per GPU, and a dual 256-bit memory interface. The card will end up with 2GB of memory and will use a special, or simply custom cooling solution designed for such a card.

Bear in mind that this one doesn't come from AMD and this is purely in-house Powercolor design, but some other partners might also be working on similar cards. The name is still unknown. The card features two DVI, two mini DisplayPort 1.2 and one HDMI 1.4 display output.

Currently, the HD 6870 sells for around US $199.99, HD 6970 goes for US $349.99 and the dual-GPU Cayman HD 6990 is around US $734.99. AMD doesn't have a card in the US $400 to $ 500 range, and depending on the performance, this card could fit in that price segment, although users can always go for Crossfire.

While waiting for something new to show up, XFX has decided to roll out yet another card that will be a part of its Black Edition lineup, the HD 6870 Black Edition.

The new HD 6870 Black Edition features 1120 Stream Processors and has ended up factory overclocked to 940MHz for the GPU and 4600MHz for 1GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with a 256-bit memory interface. XFX also slapped a non-reference custom cooler on this one so you are looking at a card that has a dual-slot cooler with two fans and four heatpipes that should do a good job at keeping the temps at bay.

The new HD 6870 Black Edition also features XFX's recognizable backplate with two DVI, HDMI and two mini DisplayPort outputs.

The card is currently available in Europe at around €170 and you can find it here.

Our sources that are currently preparing for AMD HD 6790 launch have confirmed that the card is a great overclocker and that disabled shaders might even be unlockable.

As you already know, the HD 6790 is based on quite well known Barts GPU, the same one behind both cards in the HD 6800 series, and it even uses the PCB that is similar, if not the same, as the one used for the HD 6870 cards. The choice of HD 6870 PCB should explain the maximum value TDP of 150W and even the fact that it needs two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors.

For now we can only confirm that the upcoming HD 6790 cards will have an insane overclocking potential, and we are hearing that 1GHz is possible and quite easily achievable. Bear in mind that partners will surely go for their own cooling solutions that should make those overclocking ventures even easier, and if the shader unlockability gets confirmed, AMD might have a really good card on shelves once it launch on 5th of April.

We'll keep our ear close to ground to hear if any of our sources manage to confirm the shader unlock rumour.

After treating us to a sneak preview of its new Radeon HD 6870 Eyefinity 6 Edition graphics card, Powercolor has now officially announced it.

The specs are pretty much what you would expect from the HD 6870 card so you are looking at a Barts XT GPU with 1120 Stream processors. The GPU ticks at 900MHz while the 2GB of GDDR5 memory paired up with 256-bit memory interface works at 4200MHz. It is good that Powercolor decided to strap it with additional 1GB of memory due to the fact that higher resolutions usually need more memory. The I/O panel offers six mini DisplayPort outputs.

The card is cooled by Powercolor's dual-slot non-reference cooler with a central fan and the card needs two PCI-Express 6-pin connectors. The price or the availability date haven't been announced but we are sure that the card will show up in retail/e-tail pretty soon.

Powercolor is apparently working on a yet another card that will be a part of its HD 6800 series, the Eyefinity 6 HD 6870.

As you could have guessed from the name, the card will be based on the HD 6870, Barts XT GPU, and will feature six DisplayPort outputs. The card will use Powercolor's well known cooler, the same one that is proudly cooling its PCS lineup and does a hell of job according to our reviews.

The details are still scarce so the precise clocks, date of availability or the price are still unknown. We are sure that Powercolor will be more than happy to show this one at Cebit so we'll probably know more then.

We just noticed that XFX has dropped the price of its Radeon HD 6870 under 200 euro, and some of these cards are listed and available for as low as €185, here.

The card's main competitor, Geforce GTX 560 Ti, launched recently. Luckily for AMD, these cards still sell for €220, or in some cases €210 depending on the vendor. However, we have to admit that it ends up somewhat faster.

Still there are plenty of those that don’t want to spend more than 200 euro for a card, or simply have a thing for AMD cards, and we believe that they can still score some decent sales with these prices.